Samuel and Eli: Do You Hear What I Hear?

from my message on 9/1/13, from I Sam. 3:1-18, part of my Life Coach Series

"In those days, the word of the Lord was rarely heard."  That's what the scripture says.  May be true for our days as well.  Do you think it was because the Lord has stopped speaking?  Or was it because the people had stopped listening?  Yeah, I think it was the latter also.  People had grown hard of hearing...the Lord.

I don't want to make light of hearing problems.  I will tell you a funny story from my early ministry.  One Sunday, one of my older men was paying me rapt attention while I was preaching in San Saba.  He was intent of every word. He gave me extreme eye contact.  Later that week I happened to be visiting in his home.  I complimented him on his listening to the message.  He smiled.  His wife said, "Jack forgot his hearing aids that morning!"

Many people have hearing problems.  I did some research this past week.  36 million Americans or 17% of our population have some degree of hearing loss.  But as we get older, some 47% of those over 75 years of age have impairment.  One of them is my mom.  I got to spend a lot of time with her this summer.  One of the things she asked me to do was to install a Bose sound system for her TV.  She said that she was having a hard time making out the British accents on Masterpiece Mystery on PBS on Sunday nights.  When I called her yesterday, she had been to see a doctor of audiology and had gotten fitted for hearing aids.

It is not funny.  People who suffer hearing loss can become depressed, frustrated, and embarrassed.  They can appear confused, unresponsive, and uncooperative.  As a church we have just installed a hearing assistant system.

In our scripture, the hearing loss is not due to a genetic or biological or accidental cause.  It is a spiritual disease.

Imagine this boys and girls.  Samuel is only 7 or 8 years old.  His mom,  said that if she ever had a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord.  That's how Samuel came to be living at the temple of the Lord.  In fact, Samuel was sleeping before the ark of the covenant.  Boys and girls, that would be like you sleeping in front of the altar here at church every night with only a candle burning.  How do you think you would feel?  I bet a little bit scared.

Samuel didn't really expect the Lord to speak though.  He was a child, but he could see and hear things.  He saw how old and doddering Eli was.  He saw how Eli's sons abused their position of authority, taking advantage of women who came to the shrine.  Surely, the Lord wouldn't speak in such a rotten place.  We can almost hear him thinking to himself, "My mom dedicated me this work?  To this place?"

So when a voice in the night comes, Samuel thinks it is the old man, Eli.  Now I am 60 years old, and I am probably the only man here that the following happens to, but sometimes I have to get up in the middle of the night.  Can't sleep.  Have to go to the bathroom. Get a drink of water.  So surely it is just Eli wandering around in the middle of the night.

"You called me Eli?"  Samuel approaches Eli.  Eli is frustrated.  "Not me.  Leave me alone.  I didn't call you."  There is some humor involved here.  Three times the same thing happens.  Samuel and Eli getting on each other's nerves.

Finally, Eli gets it.  He gives Samuel the key.  It is also what you need to take home from this sermon.  "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."  When we figure it out that it is the Lord speaking, we need to pause, adopt an attitude of listening, and wait.

It is not that we are hard of hearing.  It is that we may not be listening at all.  When do you pause?  When do you say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening?"  Maybe this time of worship is more important that we sometimes think.  Maybe the silence in worship is the most valuable time of all.  It is a time when we can listen to the Lord.

The psalmist says, "Be still and know that I am God."  How rare it is for us to be still.

It is hard for us to listen today, because there is so much noise around us.  Can I get an Amen?  All of our busyness, we wake up with the radio and TV news, tied to the computer, the phone ringing, the office gossip, the neighborhood gossip, our iPods.  Even if we grow quiet, then there is that inner critic, you know that inner voice that accuses you.  My inner critic says, "You will never be good enough."  It is hard to hear the Lord over that accusing voice.

How, when, where can you practice listening to God?  I get up early in the morning and go to scripture.  I stay with it until there is a verse, a short phrase that sticks with me, that becomes my breath prayer for the day.  I try to breathe it in and out throughout the day to stay centered, to stay listening.  You can find my breath prayers by following me on Twitter and at our church website.

You may find having a written guide will be a help.  I have several devotional guides here with me today and in my office that I can recommend.  Many of you use the Upper Room.  I once had a woman in my congregation call the Upper Room our United Methodist horoscope!  There is a scripture each day, a written reflection, and a prayer.  See if it helps you to listen.

Samuel needed Eli to help him listen.  And then Eli needed Samuel to help him listen.  We often need someone else to help guide us in listening for the Lord.  What Samuel said to Eli was harsh.  The word we receive is not always easy or pleasant.  We need someone else to help us process it, to get the truth about God and us.  It may a friend, a pastor, a spiritual director, a Bible study leader, a Sunday school teacher, a neighbor, a Stephen minister.  We often need a guide.

I have received training in being a spiritual director.  That means that I will pray with you and help you discern how God is moving in your life.  But what I have learned is this:  God is the ultimate spiritual director.  Notice the persistence of God in this passage.  God won't just come once.  God won't just whisper.  God will keep coming until we get the message.  For you, the listening may come through a verse of scripture, or a song, or a dream, or a hardship, or a worship service, or a mission project.  What I know is that God does not give up on getting the message through to us.  The Lord is our primary Life Coach.

Our response is "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."  That is the good news I have to share today.